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Opinion Contributor

Military must acknowledge hazing

Some branches of the military don't even teach that hazing is wrong, the author writes. | AP Photo

By REP. JUDY CHU | 12/16/12 9:55 PM EST

It has been more than a year and a half since a phone call changed my life forever. The voice on the line was familiar, but it was heavy with the pain of loss — a pain that I was about to share. My nephew, Marine Lance Cpl. Harry Lew, had died serving our country in Afghanistan, and my family was calling to let me know.

In the weeks that followed, our anguish deepened as we learned that Harry didn’t die from enemy fire — he died by his own hand, with his own gun, as a desperate escape from torturous hazing he had endured by his own squad mates.

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Harry’s peers decided to administer justice and “corrective training” after he fell asleep on duty. They berated him and ordered him to dig a foxhole, to do push-ups, crunches and planks, wearing his heavy full-body armor and a 25-pound sandbag. They stomped on his back, kicked and punched him — and poured the entire contents of a sandbag onto his face and in his mouth. It lasted a full three hours and 20 minutes. Twenty-two minutes later, a gunshot rang out from the fresh foxhole he had dug. My nephew was dead at 21.

I turned to the military for answers, but every inquiry was met by the same response: We don’t have a hazing problem.

But their words rang hollow; over and over, I read stories of victims like Harry. Pvt. Danny Chen’s struck very close to home. Danny, a Chinese-American from New York, had also taken his own life after his fellow soldiers and direct superiors mistreated him daily. Danny was forced to endure racial discrimination and extreme physical torment.

Harry and Danny put faces to military hazing. I began to search high and low for a way to stop it. But everywhere I looked, I found people looking the other way. I thought to myself: If a member of Congress gets brushed aside, how can anyone facing such tragedy get answers?

Finally, I convinced the House of Representatives to hold its first hearing on military abuse since 1979. I couldn’t believe what I learned: Not all branches of the military ban hazing; some don’t even teach their members that hazing is wrong; and no one knows how many men and women are victims of hazing because the military isn’t even paying serious attention.

I knew I had to act. I introduced a bill and named it after Harry. It made sure the Defense Department protects every service member in every branch from hazing. It makes hazing an actual crime. And when the House passed the National Defense Authorization Act last May, it included the provisions my bill laid out.

The Senate included language on hazing in their defense bill too, but it didn’t go far enough.

This week, the final compromise bill will get a vote in both chambers before heading to the president’s desk. As someone who has suffered through the heartbreak that military hazing can cause, I urge leadership in both houses to include the strongest language possible against this abhorrent behavior. There is no need for another family to endure such unnecessary pain. The men and women who go to such great lengths to keep us safe deserve nothing less from us.

Readers' Comments (2)

This is always tragic to lose a loved one, especially by suicide. Almost all feel compassion for your family.

Judy Chu, you should never have become personally involved in this issue, and an honorable act by you would be to recuse yourself from this issue. You are emotionally involved, this is impossible for you to think fairly and rationally.

Evidence of your bias is clear, you are not being truthful with America. You may think my words inappropriate but I am an American Indian Truth Speaker and truth is never inappropriate. Your nephew, Harry Lew, honored himself by serving our country but there were serious problems with his service. Harry Lew served in an active and hostile combat zone. Four times he fell asleep while on guard duty. He placed the lives of all his fellow soldiers at extreme risk. This is pure luck none were killed by enemy action.

Judy Chu, you avoid revealing your nephew failed his guard duty multiple times, you are not being truthful. Falling asleep on guard duty once warrants disciplinary action. Falling asleep on guard duty twice warrants a dishonorable discharge for dereliction of duty. Your nephew fell asleep four times and probably would have continued to place his unit at risk of injury and death if not for this unfortunate and tragic event. Not being tossed in a brig or facing court martial after four failures of performing his duty directly indicates he was afforded a lot of leniency.

Military records and military court records evidence this story you tell is inconsistent with what actually happened. Again, you are not being truthful with America, but I will stop here rather than continue to dishonor you.

Those "hazing rules" you added to legislation are pointless. Hazing in the military is already covered by Article 93, UCMJ, 10 U.S. Code 893:

"Any person subject to this chapter who is guilty of cruelty toward, or oppression or maltreatment of, any person subject to his orders shall be punished as a court-martial may direct."

This military law is actively executed. Our military takes unwarranted hazing seriously.

Should you, Judy Chu, witness or experience military training for special forces, navy seals and other elite combat units, you would be horrified and consider this training torture, and this training does include actual torture. This type of training and discipline, whether elite units or ordinary foot soldiers is an absolute need to help our soldiers survive combat and war.

Your adding hazing wording to legislation runs a risk of drill sargeants and trainers becoming hesitant, possibly fearful, to teach our green recruits how to better survive war. Without harsh even seemingly cruel training, our soldiers will lose their lives during war not being properly prepared for the horrors of combat.

Team work is most essential for soldiers. All must act in a "uniform" way without fail, all must be dependable. Falling asleep on guard duty places all in extreme danger. Your nephew earned discipline by failing to discharge his duties as expected, and military records reflect discipline he received was well within long standing military tradition.

This is uncomfortable but is truth. His act of suicide indicates your nephew suffered personal problems before enlistment.

My husband served a combat tour of duty in Vietnam. He came home all shot up and near death. He knows war too well, I wish he did not. He rarely talks about his war save for annoying me with stories of his pretty Vietnamese "girlfriends" over there. I do not mind, those working girls served to keep our soldiers somewhat more sane during horrific war. I asked him about guard duty, needed plead to have him tell me about this. He tells me, "There was a boy who kept falling asleep on watch, some of the boys shot and killed him before he got all of us killed."

My truthful words are uncomfortable for you. Nonetheless, I am sincerely sorry for your and your family's loss. This is truly tragic, as tragic as having our cousin come home from Vietnam in a flag draped coffin. We know your pain.